Protecting election integrity has become the top priority for elections officials, which is as it should be. To make sure everything possible is done to safeguard free and fair voting, state budget authorities have freed up the funding necessary to upgrade the cybersecurity of Ohio’s county elections operations.
Secretary of State Frank LaRose now has access to more than $1.7 million in federal funds to monitor county boards of elections for potential cyber-security threats going into the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. LaRose had to get permission from the Ohio Controlling Board, a quasi-legislative budgetary panel, to free up the money made available by the Help America Vote Act. The federal law allows states to contract with the Center for Internet Security, a New York-based nonprofit organization and the sole vendor approved by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the work.
The secretary plans to use $918,800 for this year and $791,920 for the next year to hire the nonprofit to provide near real-time monitoring of potential malicious activity on elections department systems. If a new threat is identified, CIS’s safeguards will allow officials to check for any malicious activity that already may have occurred in addition to providing warnings going forward.
With this contract Ohio becomes just the third state, following Nevada and Florida, to have such devices in all of its counties.
With the myriad threats from hackers — particularly from foreign governments — the efforts to preserve election integrity are unquestionably critical. This is especially true in Ohio, where the election system is based on the work of 88 county elections departments, many of which are small with few resources.
Preserving accurate, free, fair elections requires top-notch cyber protection for elections departments. The contract with CIS will deliver this essential security.
First Published September 19, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
